Track Pets, Cars With GPS and Cell Phone Service

LAS VEGAS–What would you pay to keep close tabs on a pet with a tendency to stray–or a teen who might be tempted to take a joyride in the family car?

At CES, a company that developed E-911 technology used by many carriers is showing somewhat pricey consumer products that use GPS and cell phone services to alert you when a pet or your car stray outside a perimeter you define Zoombak, a Liberty Media company previously known as Connectid, is selling its Zoombak locator in two bundles, a $200 version for pets and a $250 package for cars. The locator is the same in both packages–a black GPS receiver, smaller than a deck of cards and weighing less than three ounces, with a SIM card slot. And in both packages you also get an AC recharging adapter.  However while the pet locator also includes a cloth pouch with a Velcro strap for securing the gizmo to a dog collar, the car bundle comes with a cigarette lighter recharger and a recharger that you can hard-wire to your car’s battery. Here’s how the system works: After you buy the device, you set up your account on Zoombak’s Web site and link it to your specific device. Then you identify a perimeter beyond which you don’t want your pet or car to wander. Should that happen, you’d be notified by e-mail or SMS, Buckingham explained.The notification is what sets Zoombak apart from LoJack, which is a more passive system for tracking stolen cars: With a LoJack, you must initiate a search after noticing that the car is missing. I see a couple of significant drawbacks, though. The chief one is price–and not the cost of the device: Because the system depends on assisted GPS (which uses cell tower information as well as GPS signals), you essentially need a cell phone account for the device. Zoombak handles this for a monthly service fee of $10 for the first six months, and $15 thereafter.

And if the car or pet should roam outside the area of cell coverage (T-Mobile is Zoombak’s principle carrier, although the company has roaming agreements with AT&T), there goes the notification (although you can still track the subject’s whereabouts via your Zoombak account’s Web page. The device only holds its charge for five days, which means you’ll be constantly recharging it (although hard-wiring the car adapter to the car’s battery can potentially save you this inconvenience). And finally, that pet pouch may be fine for a mid- to large-sized dog, but for some of the more petite breeds it may prove overly heavy and clunky.Zoombak locators are available now through the company’s Web site, and will be in pet and big-box retailers in the next few months. In an interesting aside, Buckingham said the car locator will eventually acquire the ability to monitor the missing car’s speed as well as its location, which would be a real blow to joy-riding.